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#plutarch

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οὐ φροντὶς - Tim Goodwin<p>The Parthian Pomaxathres was said to have killed Crassus, although Plutarch said this was "a matter of conjecture".</p><p>Things didn't end well for the rest of the Roman expeditionary force:</p><p>"These details, however, are matters of conjecture rather than of knowledge. For of the Romans who were present there and fighting about Crassus, some were slain, and others fled back to the hill. [7] Thither the Parthians came and said that as for Crassus, he had met with his deserts, but that Surena ordered the rest of the Romans to come down without fear. Thereupon some of them went down and delivered themselves up, but the rest scattered during the night, and of these a very few made their escape; the rest of them were hunted down by the Arabs, captured, and cut to pieces. In the whole campaign, twenty thousand are said to have been killed, and ten thousand to have been taken alive."</p><p>Plut. Crass. 31.5-7 (tr. B. Perrin)</p><p><a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0038%3Achapter%3D31" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?</span><span class="invisible">doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0038%3Achapter%3D31</span></a></p><p><a href="https://hcommons.social/tags/AncientRome" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AncientRome</span></a><br><a href="https://hcommons.social/tags/Crassus" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Crassus</span></a><br><a href="https://hcommons.social/tags/AncientGreek" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AncientGreek</span></a> <a href="https://hcommons.social/tags/Plutarch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Plutarch</span></a></p>
the roamer<p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Plutarch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Plutarch</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/ParallelLives" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ParallelLives</span></a><br><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Alcibiades" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Alcibiades</span></a> 7/</p><p>But all this statecraft and eloquence and lofty purpose and cleverness was attended with great luxuriousness of life, with wanton drunkenness and lewdness, and with prodigal expenditures. </p><p>The reputable men of the city looked on all these things with loathing and indignation, and feared his contemptuous and lawless spirit. They thought such conduct as his tyrant-like and monstrous.</p><p>How the common folk felt towards him has been well set forth by Aristophanes⁠ in these words:—</p><p>"It yearns for him, and hates him too, but wants him back;"</p><p>and again, veiling a yet greater severity in his metaphor:–</p><p>"A lion is not to be reared within the state; But, once you've reared him up, consult his every mood." </p><p>[Section 16]</p><p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/WeKnowTheType" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WeKnowTheType</span></a></p>
the roamer<p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Plutarch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Plutarch</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/ParallelLives" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ParallelLives</span></a><br><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Alcibiades" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Alcibiades</span></a> 6/</p><p>Alcibiades once wished to see Pericles, and went to his house. But he was told that Pericles could not see him; he was studying how to render his accounts to the Athenians. "Were it not better for him," said Alcibiades, as he went away, "to study how not to render his accounts to the Athenians?" </p><p>[Section 7]</p>
the roamer<p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Plutarch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Plutarch</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/ParallelLives" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ParallelLives</span></a><br><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Alcibiades" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Alcibiades</span></a> 5/ </p><p>He learned how great were his deficiencies and how incomplete his excellence. </p><p>[Section 6]</p>
the roamer<p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Plutarch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Plutarch</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/ParallelLives" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ParallelLives</span></a><br><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Alcibiades" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Alcibiades</span></a> 4/ </p><p>And he came to think that the work of Socrates was really a kind of provision of the gods for the care and salvation of youth. </p><p>Thus, by despising himself, admiring his friend, loving that friend's kindly solicitude and revering his excellence, he insensibly acquired an "image of love," as Plato says,⁠ "to match love," and all were amazed to see him eating, exercising, and tenting with Socrates,⁠ while he was harsh and stubborn with the rest of his lovers. </p><p>[Section 4]</p>
the roamer<p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Plutarch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Plutarch</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/ParallelLives" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ParallelLives</span></a><br><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Alcibiades" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Alcibiades</span></a> 3/ </p><p>And so it was that Alcibiades, although he was pampered from the very first, and was prevented by the companions who sought only to please him from giving ear to one who would instruct and train him, nevertheless, through the goodness of his parts, at last saw all that was in Socrates, and clave to him, putting away his rich and famous lovers. </p><p>[Section 4]</p>
the roamer<p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Plutarch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Plutarch</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/ParallelLives" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ParallelLives</span></a><br><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Alcibiades" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Alcibiades</span></a> 2/ </p><p>It was not long before many men of high birth clustered about him and paid him their attentions. Most of them were plainly smitten with his brilliant youthful beauty and fondly courted him. </p><p>But it was the love which Socrates had for him that bore strong testimony to the boy's native excellence and good parts. These Socrates saw radiantly manifest in his outward person, and, fearful of the influence upon him of wealth and rank and the throng of citizens, foreigners and allies who sought to preëmpt his affections by flattery and favour, he was fain to protect him, and not suffer such a fair flowering plant to cast its native fruit to perdition. </p><p>For there is no man whom Fortune so envelops and compasses about with the so‑called good things of life that he cannot be reached by the bold and caustic reasonings of philosophy, and pierced to the heart.</p><p>[Section 4]</p>
the roamer<p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Plutarch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Plutarch</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/ParallelLives" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ParallelLives</span></a><br><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Alcibiades" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Alcibiades</span></a> 1/ </p><p>As a boy, Alcibiades was once hard pressed in wrestling, and to save himself from getting a fall, set his teeth in his opponent's arms, where they clutched him, and was like to have bitten through them. His adversary, letting go his hold, cried: "You bite, Alcibiades, as women do!" "Not I," said Alcibiades, "but as lions do." </p><p>[Section 2]</p><p><a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Alcibiades*.html" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E</span><span class="invisible">/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Alcibiades*.html</span></a></p>
the roamerUKpol: Starmer's failings, analysed by Plutarch
the roamer<p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Plutarch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Plutarch</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/ParallelLives" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ParallelLives</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/PericlesAndFabius" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>PericlesAndFabius</span></a> 2/</p><p>And it is just as great a failing in a general to involve himself in disaster from want of foresight, as it is to throw away an opportunity for success from want of confidence. </p><p>[Section 2]</p>
the roamer<p>(Continuing my journey through Plutarch's Parallel Lives.)</p><p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Plutarch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Plutarch</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/ParallelLives" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ParallelLives</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/PericlesAndFabius" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>PericlesAndFabius</span></a> 1/</p><p>Fabius, </p><p>whose eyes beheld many disgraceful defeats, many cruel deaths of imperators and generals, </p><p>lakes and plains and forests filled with with slain armies,</p><p>and rivers flowing with blood and slaughter to the sea, </p><p>put helping and supporting hands to the city, and by his firm and independent course,</p><p>prevented her from utter exhaustion through the disasters brought upon her by others.</p><p>[Section 1]</p><p><a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Pericles+Fabius_Maximus*.html" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E</span><span class="invisible">/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Pericles+Fabius_Maximus*.html</span></a></p><p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/resistance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>resistance</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/DefeatIsNeverFinal" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>DefeatIsNeverFinal</span></a></p>
the roamer<p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Plutarch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Plutarch</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/ParallelLives" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ParallelLives</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/FabiusMaximus" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FabiusMaximus</span></a> 21/</p><p>Fabius, however, was not buried by the Romans at the public charge, but each private citizen contributed the smallest coin in his possession, not because Fabius's poverty called for their aid, but because the people felt that they were burying a father, whose death thus received honour and regard befitting his life. </p><p>[Section 27]</p><p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/respect" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>respect</span></a></p>
the roamer<p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Plutarch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Plutarch</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/ParallelLives" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ParallelLives</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/FabiusMaximus" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FabiusMaximus</span></a> 20/</p><p>The son of Fabius, as it happened, died, and this affliction Fabius bore with equanimity, like a wise man and a good father. </p><p>[Section 24]</p><p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/SometimesTheAncientsSeemSoDistantToUs" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SometimesTheAncientsSeemSoDistantToUs</span></a> </p><p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/HowNotToMourn" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>HowNotToMourn</span></a></p>
the roamer<p>Reading Plutarch's "Parallel Lives", not as a historian or a classicist, but as a 21st century political person in a time of retreat. I gain strength from these texts, a fresh perspective on how to stay morally intact and how to resist.</p><p>Re-posting one of my recent quotes here. Plutarch describes how the Romans managed to overcome the seemingly overwhelming forces of Hannibal, combining occasional attacks by Marcellus with permanent "stealthy hostility" by Fabius.</p><p>QUOTE: </p><p>"By his frequent encounters with Marcellus, whose course was like that of a swiftly-flowing river, Hannibal saw his forces shaken and swept away; while by Fabius, whose course was slow, noiseless, and unceasing in its stealthy hostility, they were imperceptibly worn away and consumed. And finally he was brought to such a pass that he was worn out with fighting Marcellus, and afraid of Fabius when not fighting." </p><p>Trump and Farage: watch out!</p><p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/@the_roamer/115062541595451048" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">mastodonapp.uk/@the_roamer/115</span><span class="invisible">062541595451048</span></a></p><p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/resistance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>resistance</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Plutarch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Plutarch</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/ParallelLives" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ParallelLives</span></a></p>
the roamer<p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Plutarch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Plutarch</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/ParallelLives" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ParallelLives</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/FabiusMaximus" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FabiusMaximus</span></a> 19/</p><p>Fabius thought it hard that, whereas the trainers of horses and dogs relied upon care and intimacy and feeding rather than on goads and heavy collars for the removal of the animal's obstinacy, anger, and discontent, the commander of men should not base the most of his discipline on kindness and gentleness, but show more harshness and violence in his treatment of them than farmers in their treatment of wild fig-trees, wild pear-trees, and wild olive-trees, which they reclaim and domesticate till they bear luscious olives, pears, and figs. </p><p>[Section 20]</p><p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/LeadingThroughKindness" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>LeadingThroughKindness</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/MangageByAppreciation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>MangageByAppreciation</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/AppreciativeInquiry" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>AppreciativeInquiry</span></a></p>
the roamer<p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Plutarch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Plutarch</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/ParallelLives" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ParallelLives</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/FabiusMaximus" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FabiusMaximus</span></a> 18/ </p><p>Fabius thought that the revolts of the cities and the agitations of the allies ought to be restrained and discountenanced by mild and gentle measures, without testing every suspicion and without showing harshness in every case to be suspected. </p><p>When Fabius learned about a Marsian soldier, eminent among the allies for valour and high birth, who had been talking with some of the soldiers in the camp about deserting to the enemy, Fabius was not incensed with him, but admitted frankly that he had been unduly neglected; so far, he said, this was the fault of the commanders, who distributed their honours by favour rather than for valour, but in the future it would be the man's own fault if he did not come to him and tell him when he wanted anything. </p><p>These words were followed by the gift of a warhorse and by other signal rewards for bravery, and from that time on there was no more faithful and zealous man in the service. </p><p>[Section 20]</p>
the roamer<p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Plutarch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Plutarch</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/ParallelLives" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ParallelLives</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/FabiusMaximus" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FabiusMaximus</span></a> 17/</p><p>By his frequent encounters with Marcellus, whose course was like that of a swiftly-flowing river, Hannibal saw his forces shaken and swept away; while by Fabius, whose course was slow, noiseless, and unceasing in its stealthy hostility, they were imperceptibly worn away and consumed. And finally he was brought to such a pass that he was worn out with fighting Marcellus, and afraid of Fabius when not fighting. </p><p>[Section 19]</p>
the roamer<p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/Plutarch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Plutarch</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/ParallelLives" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ParallelLives</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/FabiusMaximus" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>FabiusMaximus</span></a> 16/</p><p>The gentle dignity of the city [showed itself] when Varro, the consul, came back from his flight, as one would from a most ill-starred and disgraceful experience, in humility and dejection, the senate and the whole people met him at the gate with a welcome.</p><p>[...]</p><p>Because Varro had not despaired after so great a misfortune, but was at hand to assume the reigns of government, and to employ the law and his fellow citizens in accomplishing the salvation which lay within their power.</p><p>[Section 18]</p><p><a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/NeverGiveUp" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>NeverGiveUp</span></a> <a href="https://mastodonapp.uk/tags/resistance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>resistance</span></a></p>
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the roamer

#Plutarch #ParallelLives #FabiusMaximus 14/

[After the lost battle.]

That which was called cowardice and sluggishness in Fabius before the battle, immediately after the battle was thought to be no mere human calculation, nay, rather, a divine and marvellous intelligence, since it looked so far into the future and foretold a disaster which could hardly be believed by those who experienced it.

He who, in times of apparent security, appeared cautious and irresolute, then, when all were plunged in boundless grief and helpless confusion, was the only man to walk the city with calm step, composed countenance, and gracious address.

[Section 17]

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